The Dusks' Assault
by musicluvah23
Summary: When Roxas saves Axel after his fire attack against the dusks, Axel can't hide his feelings anymore. Unfortunately, Sora and the gang come in to ruin their perfect moment. AkuRoku
1. Chapter 1

_This scene takes place right when Axel comes to save Sora from the mob of surrounding dusks. Axel uses up his entire energy force with his fire attack, and collapses onto the floor. Sora kneels beside him and listens to Axel's dying words._

"I wanted to see Roxas," Axel mumbled with his last breathes of air, "He… was the only one I liked… He made me feel… like I had a heart."

"Axel…" Sora sighed. The look in his eyes was what you could only expect from someone that was merely an acquaintance—he felt pain, of course, but he couldn't feel the full extent of it, like what he would have felt if this were Kairi or Riku lying there on the ground.

Then, as if a bolt of lightning had hit him, Sora's face fell blank. There was no longer any pain or grief. He could have been asleep with his eyes open as far as anyone would have been able to tell.

Axel became silent, staring weakly up at Sora with the small amount of confusion he could muster.

Sora twitched. His eyes grew wide, and his lips parted.

As fast as this bizarre, possessed look had taken a hold of Sora's face, it was gone, and had been replaced by an entirely different person looking out from his now glistening eyes.

Axel shot him a knowing look mixed with shock, and he saw that this was Roxas standing above him.

Sora was standing farther away, and decided that he didn't have any more time to lose if he wanted to save Kairi. He left, and the two remaining men ignored his exit.

"I missed you," Axel said as a tiny smile was spreading across his lips, and his eyes too began to glisten. "I'm so happy that you're the last thing that I get to see before I die."

Suddenly, Roxas's expression turned hard.

"No!" he exclaimed, "I'm not going to let you disappear!"

"Roxas don't," Axel protested, "You have to let me go. I'm… not worth…"

"Shhhh…" Roxas whispered gently, appearing to become more and more serene with every second. He placed his right hand on Axel's chest, letting his head rest there as he closed his eyes. He felt the thump of Axel's heartbeat, and became in tune with his breathing.

As much as part of him wanted Roxas to stop, most of him was in a state of bliss at the feeling of Roxas's body against his own in this sweet, caring way. He began to feel the darkness sweep over him. His eyes started to close…

Out of nowhere, a spot of light appeared at the place where Roxas held his hand. It slowly grew larger, spreading across Axel's body until he was completely illuminated.

Roxas lifted his head and opened his eyes. He stared down in awe at the glowing mass that was Axel as it rose onto its feet, and was eventually standing up straight.

The light faded away and there was Axel, standing with his hands on his hips, a wily grin taking up half his face. He belly laughed, and reveled with each deep breath of air that his lungs could now take in.

Disbelief was the first emotion that Roxas felt, which was quickly followed by the most joy he had ever felt in his life.

"Axel!" he shouted like he was seeing someone dear to him that had just come home from a terrible war. He ran up to his best friend, and wrapped his arms around him as he began to cry happy tears into Axel's Organization robe.

Axel pushed him away, but maintained eye contact. Roxas stopped sobbing so hardly, and began to gasp for air as if he were trying to stifle it. Slight hurt entered his eyes as he felt the coldness of Axel's reaction. He then tried to hide it with a pout.

Axel chuckled warmly, and then looked a little nervous. "Roxas, let's get out of this place. I need to tell you something important."

So he conjured up a portal to leave the Realm of Darkness. They walked through together, and when they reached the other side, they were on a white balcony at the castle in the World That Never Was.

Roxas turned to face him. "So, what is it?"

"Well," he said in a voice barely more than a whisper, "I just want to let you know how much you mean to me. The truth is…" he swallowed and looked at the ground, then looked back at Roxas, "you're the most _amazing _person I've ever met."

"Wow," Roxas replied, "I don't know what to say, Axel. Thanks, I guess…" He waited a few seconds to see if there was anything else he had to say, then began to walk towards the top of the castle, and said, "Well, I guess I have to go back to Sora now."

"Wait!" Axel stopped him by grabbing the sleeve of his robe, "What I _really _wanted to say was that I…" He hesitated.

Axel had been in love with Roxas since the first day he met him. He never told him because he thought he would just laugh in his face and never speak to him again. Axel had almost died, and now he was determined to tell Roxas how he felt about him, even if that meant he could never see him again. It had to be said.

A sudden burst of courage hit him. He took a deep breath and said, "I love—,"

Just then, a group of dusks appeared.

"Ged outta da way!" a shrill voice cried. They ducked, and a flash of ice flew above their heads and killed one of the nobodies. It was Donald, one of Sora's two dim witted sidekicks.

Sora, Donald, Goofy and Riku appeared, and they asked that Roxas and Axel would help them fight the dusks.

"Damn," Axel muttered under his breath, but they agreed to help.

After defeating the nobodies, Axel and Roxas decided to go along with them to kill Xemnas. They knew they wanted to anyway, and thought that they might as well do it with some help.

Axel wondered if he would ever get another chance to tell Roxas how he felt.

The ominous moon shone upon the six of them as they made their way up the balcony.


	2. Chapter 2

The six heroes had been traveling for about an hour now, fighting off heartless and nobodies as they tried to reach the ultimate goal of arriving at the top of this mysterious castle.

Sora and Riku were determined to save Kairi's life, the girl who held both of their affections. Neither boy ever admitted to how they really felt, but it was obvious: they didn't exactly try to hide their feelings.

Donald and Goofy didn't seem to have much motivation except for helping King Mickey. Axel would never understand why talking ducks and dogs would follow the orders of talking mice in the first place, but he was pretty apathetic about most subjects that didn't involve Roxas or himself.

Axel knew that Roxas had become friends with Sora, and that he was only going through all this trouble because he had decided to return to him, to _complete _him or something. Axel didn't totally understand why he would do that, but he sure as hell didn't like the sound of it.

Axel watched Roxas as he walked along the white floored balcony. He seemed so innocent. Sure, he had been through some rough shit in the past, but it turned out that nothing could change the true core of what Roxas was: a good, beautiful person that wouldn't give up on the good in people.

An added bonus to the beauty within was his utter gorgeousness on the outside. That spiky blonde hair, those deep blue eyes, that brilliant smile... not to mention every other body part he had.

Even Roxas's flaws added to the perfection. The only clear one that Axel could see was a bit of angst, but really; who could ever call that a flaw? It just added to his level of adorableness.

Oh, what he wouldn't give to just smother him into his arms, draw his boyish face up to his and--

"Axel?" he stopped daydreaming at the sound of Roxas saying his name.

"Mm?" he brought his eyes farther up from their current position to look Roxas in the eyes instead.

"Uh… do I have something on me?" he asked, completely oblivious.

Axel laughed nervously. "Um, yeah I thought I saw some type of… tracking device on your robe. I guess it was just the moonlight."

"Okay," Roxas went back to walking normally.

Axel turned back in the right direction too, and he noticed Donald peering over his shoulder at him. After Axel saw him, he swiftly looked away and whispered something to Goofy. After a few seconds, they both sneaked a peek at the red head again, then went back to their normal pace.

_Perceptive little guys, aren't they? _Axel thought with some contempt.

Then a depressing realization overshadowed that slight annoyance: Roxas really _didn't _have any idea about Axel's feelings. At all. Nor did he return them, obviously. Axel frowned, losing almost all of what was left from the courage he had recently.

Sora and Riku were prattling to each other about what they had been doing for the past year when they were apart.

"Ok," Sora said to him, "I get why you look so ugly like that, but what's with the blindfold?"

Riku smacked him in the back of the head.

"OW!" Sora exclaimed, "Not cool, man… not cool."

"You're so gay, dude." Riku replied.

"Hey," a girl's voice chimed out from behind, "don't you guys know that it's offensive to use that word out of context?"

She was a small blonde girl wearing a tattered white dress who looked briefly at Riku, but then smiled over at Roxas. Axel knew this chick; he didn't like her.

"Namine!" Roxas ran and threw his arms around her as fast as he could, "I'm so glad you're okay! Did they hurt you?"

Apparently he acted like that for everyone; not just Axel. You know, after coming back from the dead and everything.

"You've been watching too many Hilary Duff infomercials, Namine," Axel mumbled out of jealousy.

Nobody appeared to have heard him due to all the excitement. Axel was a bit pissed about being ignored, but then was relieved about not being caught saying something stupid that would just make Roxas angry at him.

After a few minutes of reminiscing, they were now a group of seven as they headed up the castle.

Roxas and Namine walked slightly farther back then the rest of them, and Axel guessed that they were still chatting. He watched them for a long part of the journey.

Namine giggled. She looked off towards the sky, then sneakily laced her fingers between his. He looked surprised, then looked at her as her face filled with blood. He blushed a little too, and smiled, but looked then away. His face seemed… off, somehow. The smile had faded from his lips, and his eyes stared off into the distance as he appeared to be contemplating something.

He then caught Axel spying on them from further up the path, and met his gaze. Axel was embarrassed, and looked away. When he couldn't feel Roxas's eyes on the back of his head anymore, he looked back to see Namine resting her head on his shoulder, her eyes closed with a smile on her face.

Tears started to well up inside Axel's eyes, and he looked away for a final time.

Axel didn't see that Namine slipped open her eyes to see Axel's tear stricken face. She stopped smiling and looked up at Roxas, and saw that he wasn't really happy either, though he tried to hide it.

Concern leaked though her features. Then came a demented look in her eyes that said, _Back off, he's mine._

That was slowly but surely concealed with lovey-dovey eyes once more, and she settled herself back onto Roxas's shoulder without him noticing any of what she had just done.

_I guess it's official._ Axel thought sadly, _I'm going to die alone while Roxas lives happily ever after with that bitch._ _Now I'm starting to wish he never even saved me from those damn dusks._

A girl screamed in the distance. Sora and Riku looked up, attentiveness returning to their features.

At last, we had finally found the damsel in distress. There was Kairi, being jostled around by a bunch of ants. Yeah, they were heartless, but come on: who couldn't defend against those weak little things?

"Kairi!" the two love struck heroes shouted up at her.

"Sora! Riku!" She screamed. "Help me!"

Without hesitation, they ran together up the stairs to save their beloved Kairi.

It turned out that the ants brought company, and soon, the other five of us were stuck to fight a crowd of their friends while Sora and Riku fought off the stragglers that were up higher with Kairi.

That didn't take them long, so they came back down to help us fight the rest off.

"Hey, look," Riku said as he found an odd, flowery keyblade on the floor, "You can use this, Kairi." He tossed it to her.

"Gee…" she murmured in forced appreciation, "thanks, Riku." She was offended by the fact that Riku didn't think she was capable of handling any more than the most girliest of weapons.

As Axel was watching this, a heartless swiped him on the leg. "Gah!" he moaned in the surprising pain that he felt, "Just pick up the damn weapon and help us!"

"Yeah!" Goofy added with a frown.

So she did, and eventually they had killed all the remaining heartless.


	3. Chapter 3

_**After the action had settled down, everyone left Sora and Kairi alone to talk. Riku didn't make a fuss about it, but you could tell by the look on his face that he was frustrated.**_

_**Axel being the eaves dropper that he was, couldn't help but watch them as they reminisced. He couldn't hear anything, but at one point he saw Kairi interrupt Sora in the middle of a sentence with a passionate hug. Sora was shocked, but then he promptly put his arms around her waist and they stayed that way for a while.**_

_**Axel felt a small amount of sympathy towards Riku and Sora, but mostly Sora. He too loved someone that didn't know about it. But then there was a feeling of spite that overshadowed that emotion. There was spite because Axel couldn't see any reason why either boy wouldn't confess his love to that girl. All of them were presumably single and heterosexual, so what was the problem?**_

_**Unlike the three of them, Axel did**_** have reasons for bottling up his love for Roxas. First, Roxas seemed to be straight. Second, Namine was now in the picture. Any attempt at romance with Roxas would surely be the biggest mistake of his life.**

**Then Roxas shot him another one of those looks that he had been giving him previously. Axel caught it this time, and he began to wonder what it could mean. There was always **_**that**_** possibility… but no. It **_**wasn't **_**a possibility.**

**Or was it?**

"**Alright, guys," Sora's voice broke in, "It's time to get moving again."**

**The seven of them began walking again, and it became apparent by the way that she was looking at him that Kairi had feelings for Sora as well.**

**Yet another reason that made it ridiculous that they hadn't ended up together already.**

_**So much **_**looking **_**and not enough **_**doing **_**lately, it seems. **_**Axel thought with a sigh.**

**When they finally reached the top of the castle, there was Xemnas. He was facing towards the moon chanting, "Kingdom hearts… kingdom hearts…" over and over again in a ritualistic way that creeped Axel and everyone else out.**

"**Xemnas!" Riku shouted at him, "We have you cornered. Surrender now and we will spare your life."**

**The chanting stopped, but Xemnas did not turn around. Instead, he chuckled darkly while continuing to face the moon. "So," he began, "It seems as though you all have thoroughly defeated the other Organization members. I must say, well done."**

"**Not us," Roxas exclaimed, "Me and Axel are still alive, and now we're going to kill you!" A keyblade appeared in his hand and he leaned forward as if to run up and strike Xemnas through the head, but not before Axel was quick enough to restrain him.**

"**Stop--" Axel warned Roxas in a loud voice. When he had successfully calmed him down a bit, he said in a voice low enough that the others couldn't hear, "I don't want you being more reckless than you have to be if that will get you killed."**

**He had knocked the fight out of Roxas that easily, and he was now looking up at Axel with the eyes of a child receiving a lecture. The keyblade disappeared, and the hint of a pout appeared on his lips. He settled down and let Sora and Riku do the talking.**

**Xemnas let out an evil laugh. "You two always **_**were**_** the more difficult ones," he said in an odd nostalgic tone, "Always looking after each other instead of caring about the best interests of the Organization. Like brothers. Or maybe even… lovers?" On the last word he turned and smirked at them mockingly.**

**Both of them blushed deep shades of red then, looked at the floor and pretended to ignore that last sentence; they failed miserably.**

"**Fuck you," Axel mumbled in defense.**

**Xemnas laughed again. "Enough of this!" he shouted after becoming serious, "It's time to fight, because there's no way in hell I'm backing down. I **_**will**__**have**_** my kingdom hearts!"**

**He then began to rise up into the air, growing to the size of a Cyclops.**

**The seven of them tensed to fight, but then Sora had an idea, and whispered it to Riku. Riku nodded, and created a portal.**

"**Kairi!" Sora shouted, "This is a portal to Destiny Islands. Go through and stay there until we're done fighting Xemnas."**

"**What?" she said, "You can't be serious."**

"**You have to, Kairi! I don't want you being more reckless than you have to be if that will get you killed."**

**Those were the same words Axel had said to Roxas, even though there was no way Sora could have heard them. He truly did care for her.**

**Kairi was silent then "Okay," she said, and gave in.**

"**If you're going," Namine suddenly said, "I'm coming with you." Apparently, she had the same connection with Kairi that Roxas had with Sora. It was like they couldn't ever be apart now.**

"**Alright," Kairi said. They held hands, and walked up to the portal. At the last second they looked into their respective crushes eyes. "Goodbye," they said, and they walked through.**

**Axel was standing right by the portal as he watched them leave.**

_**I guess I better put my game face on,**_** he thought, and took out his fiery weapons, ready to battle.**

**All of a sudden, he felt a violent tremor shake through the castle. It was so strong, it caused Axel to almost be knocked over, leaving him trying to regain his balance by wobbling on one foot.**

**A second shake.**

**This caught Axel off guard, and he fell into the portal at the last second before it disappeared.**

"**Axel!" he heard Roxas shout just before falling through.**

**He was lying on the ground, and felt sand surrounding him. He was on the beach at Destiny Islands.**

_**No, **_**he thought. **_**No, no, no, no, no.**_

**He brought himself up to his feet, and tried to locate the portal that would take him back to the castle and Roxas. It had disappeared.**

**Axel fell back onto the sand in despair with a somehow expressionless face.**

**Kairi and Namine were standing only a few feet away, staring at their new island companion.**

"**Hi," Kairi said in shock, "Do you need some help getting up?" She leaned down to him with an outstretched hand, smiling.**

**He looked at her blankly, and then finally took her help without words.**

**Kairi and Axel sat on the palm tree that gave a good view of the sunset, and he explained to her how he had ended up there.**

"…**And now I'm stuck here while Roxas could be out there getting killed at that damn castle!" He looked down into the water below as tears began to form in his eyes.**

"**I'm sorry," Kairi simply said. She then took a look over at Namine, who was standing with crossed arms over on the beach some yards away. She was frowning, and looked as if she were about to burst into tears herself as she stared out at the open sea. The red sun reflecting on the ocean's surface was showing in her eyes, and it gave her that devilish appearance that she had had earlier with Roxas.**

"**You love him, don't you?" Kairi asked Axel out of nowhere. She didn't have to say who.**

**Axel lifted his head with only a dismal amount of shock, still gluing his eyes to the water, "More than anything," he said with a dreamy passion trailing in his voice. He decided that he didn't care if she knew.**

"**And Namine couldn't be more pissed about it, am I right?" she continued.**

"**That's what I figured., yeah." he replied.**

"**Well," she said, "why do you think she would be like that at all if she didn't know that Roxas felt the same way you do?"**

**He looked fiercely at her now. "Of course he doesn't!" he suddenly burst out, "How could he **_**ever**_**…?" he trailed off.**

"**He does," she said, remaining calm, "I can see it in the way he acts with Namine, and the way he acts with you."**

**He lost the ferociousness in his eyes, and now he just stared at her, listening.**

"**Look," she said, "all I'm saying is that there's no reason to hold back with him the next time you see him. Tell him how you feel right away. Tell him how he's the first thing you think about when you wake up, and the last thing you want to see before you close your eyes at night. Tell him how even the most ridiculous things he does make you like him just that much more. Tell him…" she stopped herself.**

**Axel let himself laugh. "We're not talking about Roxas anymore, are we?"**

**After a second, she blushed with a smile as she stared at the sunset.**

"**I'm sorry by the way," Axel said.**

**She looked at him with confusion. "About what?" "You know…" he said, "about kidnapping you and smuggling you to the castle dungeon? Remember?"**

**She slapped her palm against her face. "Oh," she said, "That's right. Silly me, forgetting that I was kidnapped and brought to another world though a portal of darkness." They then both broke into hysterics and settled back into there spots on the palm tree.**

**As they waited for the men that they loved to return, Kairi and Axel were starting what looked like what would be a beautiful friendship.**


	4. Chapter 4

_Waiting, _Axel thought, _is there any worse feeling?_

Axel and Kairi had been sitting on the palm tree, staring at the ocean, and talking for about half an hour before he decided to explore the island a bit more.

"I'm gonna go for a walk," he said. He stood up from his seat on the tree and started to make his way across the plank bridge.

"Okay," Kairi responded with faint interest, and didn't bother to look at Axel as he walked away.

When he had reached the beach, he spotted Namine lying on the sand. She was just lying there, hands laced behind her head, not doing much more than Kairi was. Apparently she was in deep thought.

He didn't really want to be seen by her at the moment, though he figured she wouldn't notice anyway, so he decided to check out what was around that big tree house that he always noticed when he came to visit.

Axel chuckled as he reminded himself of a traveling businessman. He came to a beautiful locale like this only to get his job done, never taking any time to just enjoy the scenery.

He walked a little closer up to the enormous tree, and to his surprise, noticed what looked like a secret passageway at the base of it. It wasn't a passageway, really, more like a tunnel. Whatever it was, it captured Axel's curiosity enough for him to crawl inside the hole and discover what was inside.

At first, it was so dark that Axel couldn't see a thing. He had to feel the sides of the walls to navigate through. After about a minute of inching his way around, he came to an area inside the cave that was lighter, and similar to an actual-sized room.

This place was enchanting. He could hear the distant echo of the waterfall along with the occasional drop of moisture from the ceiling of the cave. There were sketches on the wall of tiny people. After a few moments of deliberation, Axel could make out who the people on the wall were supposed to represent. He saw countless pictures of Sora and Kairi scattered throughout the walls of the cave.

_No Riku? _Axel thought. Riku was the other boy that had lived on this tiny island for years, so why was he not depicted on these walls? To his understanding, there were a few others as well.

Axel wandered around the tiny room a bit longer, and noticed a huge looming door among the drawings. It was a normal door, except that it had no way of using it, such as a knob.

He walked up to the door and put his ear up against it like he was cracking a safe. Then he drew his face away and gave it a few knocks. No response.

_Oh well,_ Axel thought, and then discovered one particular drawing that was different from all the others. This one was closer to the ground, so Axel kneeled onto his knees to get a better look.

The picture was made up of what looked like Sora and Kairi standing opposite each other. What was slightly bizarre was two shooting stars that were between them; one was shooting in Kairi's direction, and the other was shooting in Sora's. Each person and star looked as if they had been drawn by two different people for some reason.

After some thought, Axel remember the odd fruits that he had seen earlier that were growing from the palm tree he and Kairi were sitting at. They were star-shaped, just like the stars in the drawing.

_Oh,_ Axel realized, _I get it. This must be some sort of secret place that only Sora and Kairi must have visited. That's why no one else is drawn on the walls…_

Axel thought about the countless hours that those two must have spent in this little cave, each of them wanting each other so badly, yet no one saying what they truly felt.

He sighed, and began his exit from the secret place, feeling the walls to help him find his way out.

Once he saw the light from outside, he thought he saw a glimpse of something dark blue and black just off the shoreline. A portal.

_Have they finally returned? _Axel thought with intense anticipation, _Is my Roxy home and safe?_

He ran to the beach with all the speed that his long, lanky legs could muster.

When he reached the center of the beach, he saw five figures step out of the portal. It was Sora, Donald, Goofy, a Riku… and Roxas.

Axel was hit with a jolt of relief so big, it almost knocked him to his knees right there on the sand, but instead he began to run with more force even than before.

"Roxas!" he screamed so loud that his voice echoed throughout the island. Each stride felt like an eternity, until he was finally there with his love, wrapping his arms so tightly around him that he worried in the back of his head whether Roxas could breathe.

"I was so… worried…" Axel said though madly flowing tears, "You could've… died…"

Then Roxas gently nudged Axel's head away, still holding his body firmly against his own. He moved his hands up to Axel's face, one hand on either side of it, cupping it with tenderness. "Let's end this nonsense," he said in barely more than a whisper, and pulled Axel's face to his in one brief motion until their lips met.

Disbelief struck Axel with ten times the intensity of the relief, and he stood there, unable to take back control of his body for about two seconds before he finally cooperated with his lips as they moved in perfect harmony with Roxas's. Then he moved his own hands up to Roxas's head, and dug his fingers into his beautiful blonde locks as they kissed.

They soon became a mess of arms, legs, black robes and red and blonde hair as they remained completely oblivious to anything in the universe that wasn't Roxas, or that wasn't Axel.

Axel could feel the heat that was emanating from the blush on Roxas's face and his own. This moment was the most precious he had ever experienced in his life, as a nobody or otherwise, and he didn't want it to end. Whoever said that nobodies don't have feelings? Fuck that. Maybe everyone else just doesn't know what it's like. What it's _really_ like to feel this much passion. How could they ever feel the way that Axel was feeling at this moment? It was impossible. Nobody could.

As much as he valued Roxas above everything else imaginable, he eventually had to breathe. So he grudgingly parted his own lips from Roxas, and took a deep breath.

"You have _no_ idea," Axel said exasperatingly, "how much I've wanted to do that…"

"…ever since I first laid eyes on you." Roxas finished with a chuckle. The blush on his face accentuated the blue in his eyes and the yellow in his hair.

"You look like a rainbow," Axel said with a laugh, still bursting with joy.

Roxas laughed too. "You should see _your_self," Roxas replied, "You look like a chili pepper."

That made them both break into hysterics. Axel cut Roxas off mid-laugh and gave him one more tender peck on the lips.

"I think we need to check back into reality," Roxas said with a smirk.

Axel sighed. "Fine…" he moaned, and they released each other's grip just enough to allow themselves to have a look at their surroundings.

Kairi and Sora were off on the side somewhere. They were far enough away that you couldn't hear what they were saying, but you could see what they were doing, much like before at the castle. Except this time, Sora was the one that was saying something that made Kairi looked shocked. He took her hands into his, and said one last thing that made her shocked expression slowly turn into a bright, beaming smile. He then brought his face down to hers, and all of a sudden they were kissing.

"Wow," Axel muttered, "I'm glad they finally got together after all that."

"Yeah," Roxas chuckled. He looked a little embarrassed for some reason, "Actually, we sort of… made a pact."

This surprised Axel. "What kind of pact?" he asked.

"After we beat Xemnas," he began, "we made a deal between the two of us that when we got home, we would tell the people who we loved…" he smiled up at Axel, "…how we felt about them."

"I see," Axel replied with a smirk, and he stole another kiss.

"Yep," Roxas said with that cute "little kid" attitude that Axel loved about him.

They also saw Goofy and Donald standing somewhere else on the beach, just talking to each other. They looked pretty out-of-place compared to everyone else.

Then they were Riku and Namine. They were off sitting on the beach together, also in their own little separate group from the others. Both of them were staring dejectedly out into the ocean, their chins leaning against their hands, the two rejected lovers that they were. You could see their lips moving, so apparently they were talking things over with each other. They would probably have a lot to say.

Something that Riku said must have been funny, because out of nowhere, Namine smiled. That was soon followed by Riku smiling too, and Namine giving Riku a playful push as he pretended to really be knocked over by it. He straightened himself back up, and after some laughter, they settled back into their original positions, but this time with permanent grins on their faces.

"Can we leave reality again?" he said as he pulled Roxas back to his body.

"Whatever you say, Axel," he replied, and soon they were kissing again.

_Loving him,_ Axel thought, _is there any better feeling?_


	5. Chapter 5

_**It had been about an hour since everyone had come back from the castle, and it had taken Axel this long to notice that something wasn't quite right.**_

"_**Hey, Roxy?" Axel said as he and Roxas were cuddling on the palm tree.**_

"_**Yeah, Axel?" Roxas replied.**_

"_**I wasn't really thinking about it until now…" Axel chuckled happily as he recounted the events that had just transpired in the last hour, "but where's King Mickey?"**_

_**Roxas was staring up into Axel's big, green eyes so intently that he almost wasn't paying attention to what he was saying. "Huh?" he said, confused. Axel rose an eyebrow. "Oh, yeah!" He snapped out of it, "He stayed back to help this guy named Ansem."**_

"_**Who's Ansem?" Axel asked.**_

"_**Well," Roxas began, "He was helping us beat Xemnas. I'm not entirely sure who he was, but he had this machine that was supposed to do something important. Ansem was waiting for it to charge, and then a group of heartless gathered around him as he was in the middle of that."**_

"_**Oh," Axel said as he listened to Roxas's story,**_

"_**Ansem was apparently one of Mickey's good friends," Roxas continued, "so Mickey said to all of us, 'Run along fellas! You'll have to go on and defeat Xemnas without me, because I have to help Ansem right now.' We tried to tell him that we should help him first, but he convinced us that Xemnas must be stopped as soon as possible. So we left them there to fend for themselves."**_

"_**Wow," Axel said with some shock, "So I guess everybody's waiting for him to come back now, aren't they?**_

"_**Yep," Roxas mumbled. **_

_**--**_

_**Less than an hour later, another portal appeared on the beach. Everyone ran up to see who it was, and this time it was Mickey. Just**_** Mickey.**

"**Your majesty!" Donald and Goofy shouted out in unison as they both squeezed him in a three person bear hug.**

**Despite the affection, only a ghost of a smile could be seen on King Mickey's face.**

_**Uh oh**_**, Axel thought.**

**Donald and Goofy realized that Mickey wasn't in nearly as good a mood as they were, so they released him. Axel could see that they were suspecting the same thing that he was.**

"**Where's…?" Sora began to ask.**

**Mickey just shook his head and looked to the ground.**

**Then we all knew.**

**--**

**Two weeks had past since that day, and Donald, Goofy, and the King had returned to their own home. Before they left, they held a funeral for Ansem. A wooden sign with his name painted on it hung on one of the branches of a bush that was on the edge of the shoreline as a memorial.**

**Since Roxas was already intent on staying at Destiny Islands, so was Axel. They found a nice apartment that was on the mainland less than a mile away from the island. Roxas and Axel lived there together, and Sora, Riku, and Kairi all had their parents' houses to go back to. Namine found a good place for herself too, and ended up being room mates with this girl named Selphie.**

**They all went down to the island, and ended up spending most of their free time playing around on the beach.**

**Axel and Roxas decided that this was a great spot for parties. Everyone else loved the idea, but said that they hardly got around to parties most of the time for some reason. Fortunately, Axel and Roxas had been to **_**many**_** parties back in their Organization days, and the beach soon became a hot spot for everyone on the island.**

**During one of the parties, most of the people there were eating and lounging around on the beach while listening to some dance music (like how it usually took place). There were so many people everywhere, and it was nighttime, so it was sort of hard to distinguish between all the faces.**

**Axel and Roxas were busy having a good time drinking some margaritas, when Axel noticed two figures running off behind the big tree holding hands and laughing.**

"**Hey," Axel whispered to Roxas.**

**Roxas looked up.**

**Axel pointed over to the guy and girl that were making their way over to what looked like the Secret Place and said, "Check it out."**

"**I wonder who they are…" Roxas pondered as he watched to see where they were running.**

"**Me too," Axel agreed, "Let's go spy on them."**

"**Okay," Roxas giggled.**

**Roxas had quickly picked up Axel's habit of snooping around on people once he realized how fun it was.**

**They swiftly walked away from the party with long strides, giggling and shushing each other as they tracked the traveling couple.**

**They watched as the couple crawled into the entrance of the Secret Place, the girl **

**going first, followed by a still laughing guy who was wearing blue baggy pants.**

"**Come on," Axel said in a loud whisper, and he motioned Roxas forward with his hand and kept going towards the Secret Place.**

**They both got to the entrance and then got down on their knees to crawl inside. As they felt the dirt on their hands and knees, they heard the faint sounds of the girl giggling some more as she made out with the guy she was with. Even though they couldn't see what was going on yet, they could tell that the couple was making out, and they could tell that the girl was very bubbly.**

**The ease droppers halted their own laughing as they tried to get a better look at who the two love birds actually were.**

**Finally, as the lighting allowed for a slightly better view, Axel and Roxas could see blue and blonde hair, a white dress, a yellow and white jacket, and the same baggy blue pants from earlier.**

**It was Riku and Namine.**

**Roxas let out a gasp, and Axel, whose mouth was also hanging open, caught the gasp by placing his hand over Roxas's mouth.**

**But not before Namine heard it. "Hmm?" She murmured as she brought herself away from Riku's lips.**

"**What is it?" Riku said with obvious frustration from the interruption.**

"**I thought I heard…" she began. Then she shrugged, gave up with another giggle and said, "Never mind."**

**Axel and Roxas had gotten out of their as fast as possible. When they had escaped, Axel looked over at Roxas and said, "Wow."**

"**I know…" Roxas said.**

**They then headed back to the party, eager to reveal to everybody what they had just seen.**

**--**

**The next evening, Riku and Namine were an official couple. Everybody knew about it now, but it turned out they had been keeping their relationship a secret for a few days.**

**When they were asked why, as everyone was lounging around on the palm trees, they said it didn't seem appropriate since everyone was just getting over Ansem's death.**

"'**Just getting over!?'" Kairi exclaimed, "We're all **_**totally**_** over him! Why else would we be having parties and everything?"**

"**Kairi…" Sora said with a frown, "That's not nice."**

"**Well," she countered, " It's not like we really knew him that well. It was mostly just Goofy, Donald, and the King."**

"**Yeah," Sora decided not to get too worked up about it, "I kind of knew Ansem too, but you're right; let's not get all worried about something like that when we have so much other stuff to think about."**

**Riku laughed at that.**

"**What?" Sora asked defensively.**

"**What exactly," Riku said, "is so important that it needs our attention so badly?"**

"**Parties," Axel answered.**

"**Paopu fruit," Kairi added.**

"**Very pressing issues," Sora concluded.**

**Riku leaned back against Namine on the tree and sighed, "Right…" he said with a smirk, and gave her a peck on the cheek.**

"**Hey," Namine said with some enthusiasm, "How about we all have a race to that big star that's on the other side of the island?"**

"**Okay," Kairi smiled.**

"**Sure," shrugged Sora and Riku.**

"**I'll be the official referee," Axel decided.**

**Shortly after that, Sora, Kairi, Namine, Riku, and Roxas were all lined up behind the bridge in the back of the island. It had a couple of wobbly planks that, if stepped on, would fall to the ground and send the person that was on top of it tumbling down with it. This was a good obstacle for a race, which was why this route was so popular for that purpose.**

"**First one to touch the star and get back here wins," Axel explained the rules that everyone knew anyway. "On your mark," Axel raised his left arm as if he held a racing flag, "Get set… go!"**

**On the word "go", Axel lowered his raised hand onto Roxas's sleeve and held it firmly to prevent Roxas from going anywhere. Because Roxas took off expecting to run at that moment, Axel pulled hard enough on his sleeve that the collar part of Roxas's long sleeved t-shirt fell down, exposing one of his shoulders. Along with that, he also fell to the ground mid-stride.**

"**Gah!" Roxas yelled in surprise as he hit the dirt.**

**The others ran up ahead without noticing that Roxas had been forced out of the competition by Axel.**

**Roxas was now lying face down to the ground, so he flipped himself over to look up at Axel. "What the hell was that for!?" he demanded. **

**Axel's grip was still on Roxas's sleeve, so he switched his hand over to the hand that the sleeve belonged to, pulled Roxas up from the ground, and placed him in a tight embrace with himself in one swift motion.**

"**I wanted you all to myself, silly," Axel said with a smirk, then brought Roxas's lips to his own and gave him a forceful kiss that lasted about three seconds.**

"**I want to be mad at you…" Roxas mumbled, but still had a tomato red face as he received more kisses from Axel. "That **_**did**_** kind of hurt…" More kisses. "Falling on the ground…"**

"**Sorry," Axel said before resuming.**

**Then Roxas shot him a coy smile, "I didn't want to race anyway," he finally decided as he gave up.**

**Axel laughed. "I love you, Roxy." He said.**

"**I love you, Axel."**


End file.
